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Eternals The Eternals are a fictional race of superhumans in the Marvel Comics universe. They are an offshoot of humanity created on Earth by the alien Celestials, and wage war against their counterparts, the Deviants. The Eternals were created by Jack Kirby and made their first appearance in The Eternals
Origin and early activities When the Celestials visited Earth one million years ago and performed genetic experiments on early proto-humanity, they created two divergent races: the long-lived Eternals, and the genetically unstable and monstrously grotesque Deviants. These experiments also lead to the capacity for superpowered mutations in humans. A civil war broke out amongst the Eternals, with one faction lead by Kronos and the other by his warlike brother, Uranos. Kronos' side prevailed, and Uranos and his defeated faction left Earth and journeyed to Uranus. Uranos' group soon tried to return to Earth to re-kindle the war, but they were attacked by a passing Kree ship and forced to land on Saturn's moon Titan. (Experiments performed by Kree scientists on a captured Eternal lead them to go to Earth and perform their own genetics experiments on a group of humans, thus creating the Inhumans.) One day, Kronos' experiments in Cosmic energy caused a catastrophic release of cosmic energy throughout the Eternals' city, activating latent genes in the Eternals and disintegrating the scientist's body. The Eternals now found they could channel large quantities of cosmic energy themselves, granting them near-godlike power. After the accident, Kronos' son Zuras became leader of the Eternals, while Kronos' other son, Alars, left Earth and journeyed to Titan. Alars found a civil war had erupted on Titan and wiped out all but one member, Sui-San. Alars fell in love with her, and in time they repopulated Titan. Due to the mix of activated genes from Alars and unactivated ones from Sui-San, these new Titanian Eternals are not as powerful or long-lived as Terran Eternals, but are more powerful and longer-lived than the earlier pre-civil war Titanian Eternals. While Zuras ruled, three new Eternal cities were built. The first was Olympia, located in the mountains of Greece, near the main portal between the Earth dimension and the Olympians home dimension, which lead many ancient Greeks to confuse some of the godlike Eternals with members of the Olympian pantheon. The other two Eternal cities were Polaria (located in Siberia) and Oceana (in the Pacific). When the Celestials returned to Earth to judge the worthiness of their creations, Zuras feared what would happen if the Celestials judged unfavorably. Zuras led his people against the Celestials, but was destroyed for his efforts. Before his spirit fully left the material plane, he instructed his daughter Thena to take his people to explore space. Most of the Eternals did so in the form of a gestalt Uni-Mind, but a handful -- those most heavily involved in Earthly affairs -- remained behind on Earth. Eternals return Recently, the Eternals have began reappearing on Earth. Most seem to have no memory of their own history and abilities except Ikaris, and no records of their previous appearances remain. The cause of this has yet to be disclosed, but if his story is true, the Eternal known as Sprite seems to be the cause of the collective Eternals' amnesia, as well as their distorted perceptions of history (possibly a retcon; early stories portrayed most of the current generation of Eternals -such as Ikaris and Thena -as being "only" several tens of thousands of years old; if Sprite is telling the truth about altering the Eternals' perceptions and memories, they are actually each closer to a million years old). The story is ongoing. Powers and Abilities Due to the cosmic energy that suffuses an Eternal's body and the nigh-unbreakable mental hold they hold over their bodily processes, the Eternals of Earth are effectively immortal and unkillable. They live for millennia, do not fatigue from physical exertion, are immune to disease and poison, and unaffected by environmental extremes of cold, heat. Most cannot be injured by conventional weaponry, and even if they are, an Eternal can rapidly regenerate any damage. The only way to permanently kill an Eternal is to inflict enough damage to spread a significant portion of their body over a wide area. In the latest Comic Series, "The Eternals (2006)," even molecular dispersion has been shown to not be enough to kill them; the Eternal Leader known as Ikaris was destroyed in an experiment by the Deviants (who were themselves trying to determine the extent of the Eternals' ability to withstand damage) down to the atomic level by a disintegrator beam, yet he appeared fully restored in an unknown location shortly thereafter. All Eternals are also superhumanly strong, able to lift/press an average of 15 tons. This same cosmic energy can be channeled for a number of superhuman abilities. All Eternals can: Some Eternals choose to focus on a particular power in order to increased their effectiveness with it. Sersi, for example, has developed the power of transmutation farther than any other Eternal. Additionally, some Eternals choose to focus their cosmic energies into other, non-standard abilities. Ikaris, for example, channels cosmic energy to greatly enhance his senses, while the Interloper uses his to generate fear in others, and Makkari uses his cosmic energies for superspeed. Generations Antecedents Membership Trivia Eternals Titles Collections | ||||||||
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